Facebook to launch a subscription news service

With the goldmine, that online advertising is, slowly getting depleted of its resources, it only makes sense for companies to look for ways to cash in on the ever-growing customer base. Facebook is set to launch a premium subscription news service.

After hearing the concerns of several newspapers of having little control on how their stories were being exhibited and how fake news were affecting the overall landscape of the news industry. Additionally, the News Media Alliance, which represents over 2000 newspapers and digital publishers, accused Facebook and Google for benefiting from news stories without properly compensating publishers.

According to a column in the Wall Street Journal on the 10th of June, David Chern, president and chief executive of the News Media Alliance, the only way news publishers could be remunerated for their work accordingly is by coming together. A representative of Facebook responded by saying that they aren’t against the news providers coming together but they would prefer to work with the publishers individually.

Facebook is set to start testing the new product by October this year.